The Pear-Shaped Pete

settling in

i found a place on thursday after not looking particularly hard for two days.  i first went to see friends and unloaded all the gifts i brought with me.  the place i have is in the centre again and not in the little town i think i told you about.  i have a one bedroom apartment that is quite big for oaxaca with a living room, large bathroom, kitchen and service patio.  that means i have a place to wash our clothes and hang them to dry and oscar has a place to run around.

as always here i am always running out of time to do everything that i plan to do in a day.  today we woke up early to go out to a pueblo that has a sunday market that is fantastic.  we ate avena (a couple of spoonfuls of oats in a mug with boiling water poured over and a little sugar) and then headed out.  once there we found plenty to snack on while i bought our groceries. later we went to bardo and mica's house for comida, i bought barbacoa which is a enchilada broth with goat.  you sprinkle cabbage and cilantro over it all with lime and more salsa and eat it with tortillas.  god it's good.  oscar played with angeles and her cousins and had a blast/got overly tired and cranky.

i headed up to a colonia north of the centre.  there's an awesome restaurant up there that only cooks with corn grown in oaxaca and without genetic modification.  they are members of the slow food movement and are enthusiastically trying to push food security in oaxaca.  they are looking for a gringa mesera to serve food a few mornings each week and do a little administrative work as they are thinkin gof franchising.  which here in mexico means opening another restaurant elsewhere in the city.   i will learn some awesome recipes and hear about food security here.

so mari who has nisaa who's a little younger than oscar will take him on the mornings that i work so that they can play together.  he's amuch better age to be here with because he has more patience and better social skills, i suppose that it helps that all is not brand new. but he has certainly calmed down, or matured or something.  hardly any problem with angeles, normal conflict but not unpleasant and bardo said that he was really impressed with oscar's curiosity.  he and mika then talked about how simaler he is to pavel at that age.

otherwise i have been running silly errands trying to get the apartment together.  laundry soap, dish soap, broom, mop, groceries, bank, et cetera.  fun fun. 

fotos

of kashwakamak

LJT's from kashwakamak

fernleigh 2007

entonces asi es.

llegamos a kashwakamak a las cinco de la tarde el sábado.  todos ya estaban, pues casi.  somos un grupo de más o menos 60 personas. fue bastante excelente ver a todos mis muy amigos.  LJT y yo teníamos una litera, la cama arriba fue un sencillo, y la de abajo un matrimonial. arriba estaban sus peluches y sus libros, abajo durmíamos nosotros. en el cabaño había dos cuartos (el otro para sharon y laura), una cocineta, y baño, y un balcon. arreglabamos el cabaño para coser toda la semana.

fernleigh es un pabellón de caza.  y de pesca.  hay muchos cabaños al lado del lago kashwakamak, un puerto para los barcos,  un parque, unos arboles de manzana, y pasto para jugar. y el pabellón donde comemos y preparabamos la comida. lo que pasa es que cada día una familia prepara las comidas, y los otros deben lavar los trastes y limpiar el comedor.  lo que es importante es que comemos juntos para que podemos pláticar y compartir nuestras experiencias.  antes de fernleigh no durmíamos en cabaños pero en el pabellón.

el domingo fui con LJT en una canoa (su primera vez!) para explorar el lago.  despues fuimos a la dársena para nadar.  y así pasabamos casi cada día.  a veces yo cociné, o limpié el comedor.  a veces fuimos al parquecito donde hay unos juegos para niños.  pescamos un día (sin exito), un día lloraba entonces estabamos en el pabellón durante la mañana cosiendo, jugando con masa para niños, dibujando, leyendo libros, tocando musica.

estamos cantando cada momento del día.  cuando el grupo no tiene razón para cantar hay unos individuales cantando solos o en pares; con guitarra, o piano, o acapela.

las noches había una hoguera de campamiento donde todos cantaban juntos, con la poesía, sátiras, y la reflección.  fuimos nada más que dos veces.  oscar estaba demasiado cansada cada noche para portarse bien, y quedarse contento durante una hora de la hoguera.  ni modo, regresaramos cada año; tiene mucho tiempo para ir muchas veces.

el segundo día conocí a un chavo que trabajaba en el pabellón todo el verano.  es muy joven.  pero me di cuenta que a veces necesitamos, los humanos, platicar con desconocidos para evitar hablar de unos temas con nuestros amigos.  entonces fue interesante escuchar sus planes y sus ideas.  yo le conte todo acerca de mexico y oaxaca, y acerca de mi novio.  me dijo que ya sabía que tengo novio muy importante por mi manera de ignorar a todos los hombres con confianza.  dijo que es evidente que estoy pensando en él cada momento del día. 

pues quién sabe?

miércoles (creo) hubo un eclipso lunar.  también la luna estaba llena. nos estabamos sentados en frente de la hoguera, yo y unos cuatro o cinco amigos toda la noche para esperar hasta las cuatro cuando comenzó el eclipso.  los lobos estaban locos por la luna.  hubo un grupo de nosecuantos, 50 o más: lobos gritando, aullando, y pequeños ladridos. nunca he oido tanto lobos al mismo tiempo.  ellos con los somorjugos estuvieron una orquesta muy especial.

una noche un señor quien estaba trabjando en el pabellón explotaba unos cohetes sobre la dársena. el eco sobre el lago y el bosque estuvo más interesante que los cohetes.  esa noche yo y una amiga, ruth, gastamos una broma a los chicos y chicas nadando en el lago.  amarrabamos toda su ropa y sus zapatos juntos (hubo 6 o 7 chicos).  cuando salieron del agua el aire estaba bien frio pero no pudieron vestirse.  jajajaja. pues nosotros pensabamos que fue divertido.  los chico dijieron muchas groserias, pero con humor.

y muchas otras cosas que no recuerdo en este instante, o que no puedo explicar bien.  pero estuvo maravilloso estar en el campo con los muy amigos, con toda la naturaleza alrededor, y espacio para el niño, nuevos amigos para él, y yo pude mirar cuando mi hijo aprendió hacer muchas cosas nuevas, cuando encontró más confianza.

me dijo LJT que quiere quedarse en el campo para siempre con los amigos.  como mamá como hijo. 

la culebra: 2000-2007

i think she's gone for good.  time to move on, my 67 km out, 67 km back ride this week has let me mourn her leaving.

as it turns out it was a woman looking for money who took the bike.  the cops found the buggy dumped (devoid of all personal effects) and dropped it off.  i seriously thought twice about calling them, but as the theft had been seen, and the time between theft and be discovering the missing bike was all of 5 minutes i hoped that i would have a chance of getting it back.  the officer told me that the woman,"candy", had been caught and would be charged.  i asked what the likelyhood of her getting medical help and was told that around ottawa her choices were limited.  she´s positive, a crack addict, and in my opinion needs medical care rather than incarceration.  the officer told me that candy was a "carreer criminal" and would be unlikely to reform.  i don´t want her to reform, i want her to be cared for.  she needs someone to care.  but now it is out of my hands as the cops won´t tell me anything more.

damn.  another example of our punishment oriented society.  we are not given the chance to reconcile, or to have a say in the direction our lives head.  i hope that she ate the groceries.

so now it is el tio verde (an old school raleigh road bike), who now needs more work than la culebra. 

and one thing i can cross permenantly off my list of 101.

skies

How is it that the sky can be the exact same shade of dragonfly wings in any place in the world.  the only pre-requisites??  tranquility, rain puddles, minutes before sunset, and a net of clouds across the sky . . .

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new photos:

june in ottawa

skater punk

household economy

so, this summer is a summer of thrift and economy.  first of all through necessity but secondly because i can't stomach the price conversion to pesos.  i freak out.

LJT and i went to the sac depot in gatineau yesterday, i realized halfway through the aisles that i was mentally converting the prices to dollars from pesos.  then got grumpy and left the store unwilling to pay that much for alcohol.

anyway, the major problem on my list of expenses was finding suitable shampoo that wouldn't cost.  then we ran out of the last of aveda's clove shampoo which i've been using for years.  and i was housebound with LJT for the weekend and so couldn't run out to get something.  my solution??: 

our washing up soap.  i figured that once wouldn't hurt at all and it was gentle with natural ingredients and everything nice like that.  well it's perfect, cleans without drying out my hair, the ph (according to the website) turns out to be exactly perfect for hair, a litre costs much much less than my aveda shampoo and also much less than shampoo from a natural foods store.  plus i get to say that i wash my hair with washing up liquid.  jajajaja

i'm hooked. 

disorientation

massive confusion results from travelling across the entire continent in only a few hours.  then a quick succession of houses, none of which are new, but are still different from the usual landscape.  unpacking of old, remembered things, and yet unfamiliar at the same time.  stress and occupation and rushing.

so it manifests most in LJT.  which isn't to say that EB and i aren't feeling it too, we've just learnt to suppress it and move on.  nonetheless after five days in the country busy working in the gardens the city is a shock once again.  the fact that the house is still only three quarters unpacked doesn't help the displaced feeling we all seem to have.

a sense of place and belonging is terribly important for the three of us.  even if we are reluctant to set down roots in one place.  it is painful to be torn in this way, feeling a sense of comfort and ease back in a familiar city; close to family and friends.  but away from the place that is most comfortable, our heart's place; and there too friends and family.

the aloofness here is surprising, cold confusion is created when we make the mistake of wishing someone "good day".  and rules.  everywhere there are rules the people seem content to obey and never question.  it must be cultural the fear of the unknown, the fear of reprimand by peers or authority, fear of individuality, fear of so much.

people walk around with fixed faces guarding private desires.

The new place . . .

. . . which is nearly identical to the old place. 

it's weird moving into a house that is so similar to a previous home, even in the same block.  sort of.  on the other hand all of our things neatly fit into the place exactly as they did before.  the only difference here is that we seem to have no medicine cabinet, and so currently have no mirror in the house.  EB asked me today what he looked like.

the kitchen is a million times better here though.  two people can actually be in the space at once.  i'd even try it with four.

and here we have a fantastic balcony. 

LJT is hopelessly disoriented.  he is very worried about not being able to find stuff again, he keeps asking for fernanda and nisaa, and i've never seen him so unfocused.

EB and i are gaining weight.  we've only been back a week and i can feel the difference.  apparently a diet of aciento, tortillas, beans, quesillo (double cream), and tasajo is good to help lose weight.  the vegetables here are doing us in. 

we got our bikes today thank god.  i have missed my bike so much, i went for a short ride this afternoon and it felt really good, but i'm out of shape. tomorrow i say goodbye to the buses.

and that's it.  i'm looking for work, and waiting for chema to arrive on tuesday.

sinus cold

when is it going to stop??

this time all three of us have it.  i was first, spread to LJT (who's pretty bad), and Eb is threatening to storm any day now.

the light at the end of the tunnel

i'm not referring to our visiting relatives when i speak of a tunnel.  it just seems the last two weeks have been extremely long and exhausting.

first LJT's nasty stomach infection which, once the vomiting stopped, took another week for him to regain his energy.  and i swear we went through around 12 sets of sheets and towels that week.  poor adelina woke up at 5:30 one morning to try to make a dent in it all.

mum and jason arrived last saturday and we have had a very good week of showing them around the valley.  EB of course was dumped with around 8,000 contracts just in time to be relatively occupied all week long.  nonetheless he managed to get out a few times with us.

i put mum and j on a bus to monte alban monday morning while i went to my english class with andres.  i felt absolutely nasty that morning with no appetite and headache.  mari fed me caldo de pollo with some plant from the campo that helped tremendously.  so much so, in fact, that after a nap i felt ok to go to my dance class.

tuesday . . . i think that was a simple trip to the market then relaxing for the rest of the day until dance.  no there was my adventure to go find tickets in the afternoon. i got stuck hiding from a major downpour that lasted an hour.  complete with thunder and lightning.

wednesday . . . woke up sick again nonetheless went off to etla with gerardo.  took mum and j to see the paper cooperative, centro de artes and for lunch at la hacienda.  more caldo de pollo with squash greens helped my stomach - that and the dessert.  ger and i went crazy at the dessert buffet.  nap with LJT later than usual which was ok because we all went to the Lucha Libre show that night.  there were nine of us: mum and j, EB, LJT and i, eunice and joe from next door and adelina and fernanda.  was great fun.  i thought i was going to fall asleep though i was so tired.

thursday viridiana and jesus came into town to pick mum, LJT and i up so that she could see the tapetes being made.  she found three that she liked.  while the demonstration was happening LJT and i sat down with the chavez family to have atole and pan.  then LJT watched the men making a bridge from one side of the upstairs to the other.  i talked with oscar, viridiana's cousin, who i had met at her wedding last month.  nap in the afternoon and then dance class again.

friday i woke up sick again, we wandered around in the morning doing nothing particular.  had a short nap with LJT and then went out to Huayapam to talk to bardo and mika for a while.  decided on our plans for sunday.  maricarmen got in from mexico after LJT was asleep. she stayed with mum and j while EB and i went out for a couple of beers and did some future planning (ugh yes we have to admit it that we are approaching the time to go back to canada).

LJT's art class started saturday.  so EB and i spelled each other off so that one of us would always be around in case there was a crisis.  he really enjoyed it, had far too much energy for the dance class (which i guess is good), focused right down for the ceramics class but ran out of steam during hte fourth hour which was the theatre class, so we went for lunch and then home.  this week unfortunately the music portion was cancelled which was what he was looking forward to the most.  we walked around the zocalo saturday night and had elotes for dinner.

sunday (happy birthday to me) we went out to huayapam early early.  sat and had vast quantities of coffee for breakfast (along with birthday cake) before mum and j, maricarmen, EB, LJT and angeles went off to look at the orchid farm.  i stayed and sorted coffee in the shade feeling sicker that ever.  we went for truchas for lunch and had a great time.  townspeople returned to town for LJT's nap, i stayed for american visitors who don't speak spanish but want to buy terreno in huayapam.  returned home absolutely dead around 8; everyone was out.  got a birthday message from ger, soccorro, fidel and family: they would do well in the surreal atmosphere of mexico.  talk of tomato harvests, big plans for the next day (to which i was invited but were unwilling to tell me what they were), clearly some alcohol, and many many birthday wishes.  i was too tired to appreciate it.

i woke up this morning sicker than before after a night of dreaming about chicago (figure that one out).  this better end soon.